Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to coordination of wireless communications with heterogeneous radio networks, and more particularly, to assisting a mobile communication device in connecting to an Access Point (AP) by a base station.
Description of the Related Art
With growing demand for ubiquitous computing and networking, various wireless technologies have been developed, such as the Short Range Wireless (SRW) technologies, including the Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) technology, Bluetooth technology, and the ZigBee technology, etc., as well as the telecommunication technologies, including the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) technology, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology, Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) technology, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) technology, Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA-2000) technology, Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) technology, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) technology, Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, LTE-Advanced technology, and Time-Division LTE (TD-LTE) technology, etc.
For user convenience and flexibility, most Mobile Stations (MSs) (also referred to as User Equipments (UEs)) nowadays are equipped with more than one wireless communication module for supporting different wireless technologies. However, each supported wireless technology has its own features, such as bandwidth, average coverage, and service rate, etc. In particular, the bandwidth and coverage provided to an MS by a wireless network may vary according to the location conditions of the MS and/or the time conditions.
Taking an MS equipped with a WCDMA module and a WiFi module as an example, it may selectively obtain wireless services using the WCDMA technology or the WiFi technology. The wireless services obtained using the WCDMA technology generally have a rather limited bandwidth, but better mobility, while the wireless services obtained using the WiFi technology generally have a sufficient bandwidth, but lack mobility.
Conventionally, the WiFi module is initially turned off and needs to be turned on manually to perform a full scan for every possible AP nearby. Next, the MS may connect to one of the scanned APs, which is determined manually and randomly by the user of the MS or determined automatically by the MS with a previous connection history. However, it is very likely that the connected AP may not have the best channel quality or signal quality, or enough bandwidth among all available APs, or even worse, the connected AP may not be suitable for providing stable services, which would require further connection attempts by the MS to select another AP, thereby causing a waste of time and power.